You have heard the news by now that the strike is over. I was lecturing in Chattanooga and meeting with leaders of the community from 2 pm until now. My brother tweeted to ask why I was behind the curve. Oops, offline.
Pundits and commentators will be poring over the Deep Meaning of all this for weeks and months to come. There will be countless articles about Lessons Learned.
Personally, I think we have a good idea already about why the teachers went on strike. No, it wasn’t greed or money. The compensation piece was more or less settled before the strike. Pundits and talk-show hosts who take home hundreds of thousands a year will express outrage that teachers–teachers!–might make $80,000. I ask you, who adds more social value–a first grade teacher in Chicago or a talk show host on national radio or TV?
Why did they strike? After 17 years of reform and disrespect, they were fed up with the bullying. They were tired of the non-educators and politicians telling them how to teach and imposing their remedies. Reform after reform, and children in Chicago still don’t have the rich curriculum, the facilities, and the social services they need.
They were sick of the incessant school closings. They were sick of seeing charter schools open that get wildly uneven results yet are praised to the skies by Arne Duncan and now Rahm Emanuel. They knew that the charter schools are non-union and that the Mayor will use them to break the union.
In the end, the union pitted itself against Rahm Emanuel, Arne Duncan, Chicago’s business and civic leadership, and the Race to the Top. It took on the most powerful forces in the city, and yes, even President Obama, who remained neutral.
And by taking a stand, by uniting to resist the power elite, these teachers discovered they were strong. They had been downtrodden and disrespected, but no longer. They put on their red T-shirts and commanded the attention of the nation and the admiration of millions of teachers. Powerless no more, they showed that unity made them strong. 98% voted to authorize the strike, and 98% voted to end it.
The union was fortunate in having Karen Lewis as its president. She was one of them. She had taught chemistry in the Chicago public schools for more than 20 years. She is one of the few–perhaps the only–union leader in the nation who is Nationally Board Certified, a mark of her excellence as a teacher.
Not only is she a teacher through and through, she is a graduate of Dartmouth. She is neither impressed nor intimidated by the elites who flaunt their Ivy League credentials. Hers are as good as theirs. Maybe better. She is a woman of valor.
Karen Lewis gave courage to her members, and they gave courage to her.
The strike is one of the few weapons available to the powerless. Without the union, the teachers would have been ignored, and the politicians would be free to keep on reforming them again and again and again.
The strike transformed the teachers from powerless to powerful.
The teachers said, “Enough is enough. With us, not to us.”
Regardless of the terms of the contract, the teachers won.
Thank you, CTU.
I’m waiting to hear the Rahmspin. With major media is corporate pockets, the task now is to continue creating avenues for the voices of educators to be heard. I don’t have a classroom door to close anymore. I have a feeling that none of us can afford to close our doors any longer.
R.E. keeps referring to the children of Chicago as “our kids.” You don’t get to claim the kids in Chicago public schools as “our kids,” Mr. Emanuel, until you work, night and day, to make sure everyone get the rich educational experiences your own children get.
The CTU are our heroes. There’s more work to be done, but they have brought awareness to the plight of public education.
There is an interesting FAQs page on the CTU website about the proposed settlement. One of the best parts of that page is the list of benefits to students. Check it out.
Reverend Jesse Jackson wrote an excellent piece in today’s Chicago Sun-Times (sorry I can’t link! If someone can, please send it in!) Page 25–“Big School Issues are ‘Off the Table,'” in which he eloquently and accurately describes the whys and the what-fors of the strike.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/15204506-452/important-school-issues-are-off-the-table.html
Thanks, 2old! (By the way, LOVE your handle!)
It’s tongue in cheek. My “retirement” is not by choice, although 62 is not a spring chicken. I’m a tough old buzzard (with a marshmallow center).
Leave it to Diane to distill this to its simplest components. You would be surprised to learn that the section that got the most applause concerned lesson plans. That’s right, lesson plans. That’s how badly we’ve been micromanaged in Chicago. Thank you for the kind words and encouragement. See you on the 15th.
I’m so pleased. I was running out of red shirts to wear to work. 😉
One comment, my union, Tacoma Education Association, was on strike last fall for 8 days. We were on strike over how displacement is determined and our union leaders along with a new superintendent put together a great solution. Our president who led us masterfully through the strike is Nationally Board Certified and upon completing his term of office took the position of COO for the National Board. Our current president who was VP for the last term is also National Board Certified. Granted we’re much smaller than Chicago with only about 2400 members in our council but we do elect master teachers to lead us.
Karen Lewis is the Albert Shanker of our time. SHE should be president of the AFT AND the NEA. She is my absolute HERO. I worship her. She knows what teaching is, and she TELLS what teaching is. She tells the truth. All the time.
YES! MERGE the AFT & NEA & put Karen at the helm!
What a union THAT would be!
Speaking of spin, one piece of unfinished business is this trope that right wingers were passing amongst themselves on Monday. “A 2004 Fordham Institute study found that 39 percent of Chicago public school teachers send their own children to private schools,” trumpeted IllinoisPolicy.org, and the twittersphere took it from there.
It took some searching around Checker’s site but I found the study …
Click to access Fwd-1.1.pdf
The researchers, who extrapolated from 2000 census data, did find that 38.7 percent of Chicago teachers sent their kids to private schools. However, they also found that 22.7 percent of ALL Chicagoans opted for private schools. When double-income high earners are excluded, the percentage of teachers sending kids to private schools tracks very closely the city as a whole.
In other words, being a Chicago school teacher makes you no more likely to send your child to public schools in Chicago. In fact, I’ll bet if we dusted off that 12-year-old data we’d find that high-earning teachers are MORE likely than high-earning Chicagoans as a whole to send their kids to private schools. (Three out of five affluent families patronizing CPS? Even Rahm wouldn’t bet money on that.)
Bottom line from the CTU strike: The enemies of public education lost every argument and every power play, and even lost control of the narrative. But they’ll be back. Education Nation starts on NBC in just three days…..
Tvbarn
I found the overall numbers in Chicago in Table 1 and a national breakdown by income in the second graph, but did not see the data on Chicago residents broken down by income. Is that available from another source?
I am watching Chicago’s ABC affiliate. For the umpteenth night in a row, some reformer group has been running a negative ad about the CTU during the local news programs &, on ABC, once during “Nightline.” (Perhaps, then, the entire country is seeing it?)
I had contended that they would probably continue to run it after the strike was over.
Unfortunately, I was right.
This is Wall Street money. They don’t like unions. They never did.
Diane
And never will!
Thank you all so much for the weeks of support messages sent our way via social and traditional media. It truly made the difference on my picket line, and was a topic of inspiration each of the seven days. I will be posting more at http://www.classroomsooth.wordpress.com when I get a chance to breathe, but now, I am reveling in lesson planning for tomorrow, and frankly, that feels really good, too.
“Blessed the Organizer who discovers the strength in wounds; blessed are the Agitators whose touch makes the dead walk.” – Thomas McGrath
Hey, sooth, thank YOU! I know you’ve worked tirelessly, and that you are one of the teachers who was responsible for the election of the current CTU leadership. YOU are a hero!
Have fun learning with your students tomorrow, and for the rest of the year. Now, go to bed!!!
AMEN!!!
The CTU is my new hero, all those teachers, and especially Karen Lewis, hopefully someone will put her in charge of something even greater.
CTU won this battle, but we are still far from winning this war. But as this strike has showed, good conquers evil. Solidarity from this teacher/college student, now and forever!
I drove to Chattanooga from Nashville to hear you speak, and I’m so glad I did! With regard to striking, it is actually illegal in Tennessee for teachers to strike. If striking is “one of the few weapons available to the powerless,” then this is not an option for many. I have one family member who says teachers should strike for things they feel strongly about even if it is against the law. I don’t know… I’m not saying that I advocate striking, nor am I condemning the CTU for doing so. But I think a lot of teachers who were excited about teaching get discouraged and leave the profession; that’s kind of similar to a “strike” I suppose, except they aren’t holding out for anything in order to come back.
Thanks again for defending educators against the cottage industry of “reformers” who disparage them.
Thanks, Joe, for making the trip from Nashville. A long drive when you have to teach in the morning.
Joe Burns has one of the best books on the labor movement, how it has been gutted by anti-union courts and anti-labor legislation beginning with the National Labor Relations Act, and proceeding through the neoliberal Reagan-Thatcher years to the present Obama/Dem attacks on working people. It’s called _Reviving the Strike_. It outlines how cross-industry, solidarity, and sympathy strikes, backing real strikes designed to confront capital have won in the past, but how this tactic has disappeared over time. He argues that it is precisely the strike that gives any power to the labor movement, but the strikes have to be designed to win. I highly recommend the book, and I put it up there with _The Death and Life of the Great American School System_. It’s to labor what the latter is to education reform.
“But I think a lot of teachers who were excited about teaching get discouraged and leave the profession; that’s kind of similar to a ‘strike’ I suppose, except they aren’t holding out for anything in order to come back.” That is an amazingly astute (and startling–but truthful) observation, deserving of some contemplation from us all.
Having such insight and intelligence at 1:38 AM, and after a long drive, you must be exceedingly intelligent, and an amazing teacher.
I hope, for the sake of your present and future students, that you do not go on the sort of strike you described! (I also hope that you will go back to this post at a decent hour, & will read this!)
Thank you very much for your kind words ReTiredbutMisstheKids. I’m certainly not on the kind of “strike” I described, but I did leave the K-12 classroom recently to work as a graduate assistant on a funded research project while I complete my dissertation.
There is so much to learn about and contribute to our field, so I’m definitely not abandoning teaching students indefinitely (I miss them too!). I find it VERY inspiring that you’re continuing to be involved in the profession during your retirement.
Motopu, thanks for mentioning the Joe Burns book. I’ll have to check it out.
Dr. Ravitch, it was really nice to read your response. There’s no way I would have missed your lecture when you were this close to where I live. The history of education is a major research interest of mine, and I enjoy reading your publications.
I don’t know why everyone is celebrating this loss. The union leadership caved and stopped even trying to negotiate, telling the delegates it would do no good to vote to continue the strike and demand more. They are holding up the fact that they didn’t have to take merit pay, but the CPS dropped that before the strike even started.
From what I’ve been reading, the contract opens the door for more test-based evaluations of teachers, diminishes recall rights for dismissed/laid-off teaches, and even gives principals more power in hiring and firing, as well as other concessions. In Chicago they are still talking about shutting down more than a hundred schools and the expansion of charters. The union seems to be caving to the dictates of the Democratic Party. Does anyone here still think either party are friends to labor?
The CTU leadership of Lewis and Sharkey seem to have been accepting the lie that unions have to accept an “austerity contract” instead of mounting a genuine fight. Is it maybe because they don’t want to hurt Obama’s reelection chances? Much of the rank and file did not want to accept the deal because it largely gave in to Rahm Emanuel’s demands.
Keep following this story. I think we’ll find there is more not to like about the contract.
“…even President Obama, who remained neutral.”
Well, not exactly. It’s his Plunge to the Bottom policies that the teachers were striking about in the first place. Maybe he didn’t say anything one way or another during the strike, but he was already on the wrong side to begin with.
To CTU teachers: this may sound crazy, but you know how people always stand and clap when soldiers in uniform walk past? I’ve never had that urge myself, but for the past week and a half I’ve gotten an almost overpowering urge to stand and clap whenever I saw people in their CTU shirts. Thank you for your service.
I admire the Chicago teachers, but I am disappointed that the contract seems to preserve the major points of contention. What did they gain? I felt the same way after the SB 24 battle here in CT.
I suppose the take away here is that more light was shed on the corporate “reform” movement.
State law required the test score evaluation
The strike forced it down to minimum in law
CT gov is an ally of deform Illinois gov not involved
The evil genius behind the state law to crush teachers was Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children
Diane
You mention state law, and I’m wondering if you mean SB7. If so, I’ve read that the CTU actually went along with the IFT and the Democrats in supporting that anti-union legislation. The rank and file of the CTU made their position more oppositional, by protesting the Lewis/Sharkey leadership, who did listen and change their position somewhat.
Delegates Reject CTU’s Support of Illinois Senate Bill 7, Demand Major Changes
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2249
Then there are the WSWS articles on the strike, here are just a couple:
The ISO and the betrayal of the Chicago teachers [regarding SB7, before the strike]:
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/core-j17.shtml
Delegates meeting votes to end Chicago teachers strike:
http://wsws.org/articles/2012/sep2012/chic-s19.shtml
I know there are a lot of political manueverings involved between different union factions and different Trotskyist groups that want to appear to be the most revolutionary. But I think that it’s worth reading the critiques of the strike on the WSWS. Having seen first hand how opportunistic, manipulative, and anti-democratic the ISO can be (Sharkey is an important ISO leader), it raises all sorts of questions for me as to what role they might play in reigning in the class militancy of the rank and file for political reasons.
.
Very insightful, Motopu! Thanks for the info.
Shows how teachers must stand their ground whenever their union leadership is throwing them under the bus –like the very bus that Randi Weingarten is now riding with Arne Duncan across America. Why she was re-elected really baffles me.
Progressive Breakfast…
MORNING MESSAGE: Fear The Radical Rich more »…
I think Karen in one of her interviews indicated that not everyone would agree with all of the negotiated terms of the agreement. 100% is a mighty big expectation. 98% is so darn close. Karen’s leadership and her team of negotiators seemed determined to get what they could and kept on the table what the real issues were. Being able to keep those real issues on the table should certainly be counted as a win. The CTU membership’s solidarity was a win. Now, teachers all over the country need to get on the winning team! Wearing red the entire time CTU was walking the picket line made me proud! The solidarity displayed should be a lesson to us all. A winning one!
The problem with current attempts at educational reform is that we are using tests scored “right/wrong” making a complex multidimensional response process into a straight line and attending only to how many asnwers met externally defined expectations instead of attending to how and why students answered the way they did.
Our approach to scoring tests uses every answer students give and infer from these how they interpreted the questions. If we have two or more administrations of the same or closely similar tests we can also look at the dynamics of the learning process.
The current approach to scoring tests is invalid on both psychological and mathematical grounds, making decisions derived from the resulting over-simplified data also invalid. We cannot fix education with faulty feedback. The growth process appears among the answer changes among all answers, and is unrelated to the changes in total-correct scores.
Jay Powell, CEO Better Schooling Systems.
This strike, and the democratic and solidarity-packed way the CTU led it, has transformed ALL teachers EVERYWHERE from powerless to having now a sense of how to become powerful. Eyes on what our children need, involvement in the communities in which they live to support their struggles and have the communities see us as part of what they are struggling for, democratic functioning which aims to have ALL members feel and become leaders, clear messages (“The Schools Chicago’s Children Deserve” and a great Facebook campaign), and people “at the top” who are not looking for personal glory but who truly truly represent their membership. WE CAN DO THIS!!!